Wednesday, 28 April 2010

The furniture I ordered back in January came with uncannily good timing last Friday. It was some weeks late, but so was I. It's all solid oak with no self-assembly flat pack nonsense, so the last thing we wanted was for this lot to be hanging around for weeks with no place to stash it. There are no wardrobes, because the next thing on the jobs list is building some in the dressing room which is the bit beyond Tubs's handrails that you can just see through the gap. These will be built in and made to measure by me, so stand by for some swearing and such.

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Dear DIY fans. Remember this?I posted that almost exactly a year ago. I've been hard at work lately finishing it all off and doing some neat woodwork (borrowed Richard's router, thanks Rich) if I do say so myself.

I spent a lot of time thinking about exactly how the hell I was going to make this tidy and finish it off.

Our pal Tubs (real name Bartholomew, nicknamed Bathtubs, shortened to Tubs) made us a set of beautiful bespoke handrails to stop any drunkards falling down the steps late at night coming home from the pub. I had to work around them as we had them made long before the steps were finished. Here I made some pieces with curved ends for mounting the rails on, glued and clamped them to the steps and screwed to the floor. The skirting is fitted with a bevel cut at the end to fit a piece which will finish it off neatly.

Another piece of wood is cut and moulded with Richard's router which will stick on top. The skirting this side is finished now.

More bits of wood are moulded with the router and cut to trim the sides against the reveal, and some more trim is glued and clamped on to finish the bottom ends.

We decided to paint it to match the skirting, as the wood had joins and bits of filler and grain going in funny directions because of the way the steps are made so it wouldn't have looked so great if we'd left the wood exposed.

The carpet is down and the handrails are finally on. I fixed the wall where it broke up with some very strong render, and it seems to be holding.

Here they are in all their glory. He's brilliant, is Tubs. He bent the twirly bits with his teeth.

Tuesday, 20 April 2010

All the fuss with the oak was to do with the hearth surround I eventually managed to make. I simply Araldited the corners together and stuck it to the floor with Gripfill. The tiles are oiled and grouted but still without their final beeswax polish.

The stripped and sealed chimney breast and fireplace won't function, but makes a great looking feature. As you can see I've got all the skirting boards back on and painted. The walls are also painted in a shade called "Barley."

The floor is clear and clean ready for the carpet fitters who should be here within an hour or two.

Just when triumph seemed within my grasp, when I was finally ready to do the immensely rewarding task of attaching the beautiful bespoke handrails Tubs made for us, the wall decided to disintegrate instead.

Thursday, 15 April 2010

Time to reveal what I did with the scrap oak. After the disaster of cutting the first piece too short, I had a long bit left over, for which I had to find a use. This is it. I guess it looks good, but I still feel like I only just managed to rescue something from the stupid cock-up I made. Hardly a triumph. I have a new bit of oak on order for the purpose which I originally had in mind when I got this bit. I will reveal that in good time....

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Before I reveal the use to which that piece of scrap oak has been put, I'll show you what I was up to yesterday. Cleaning up and sanding all the skirting board which is to go back on the bedroom walls. Much of the skirting board which came off all the various walls in the house is a bit knackered, so many rooms will have to have new skirting board. But there's enough reasonably good stuff left for this room.

Monday, 12 April 2010

See this piece of wood? Well, being too short for it's purpose by around 20mm, it is an expensive piece of firewood. Planed, dry oak. Only really posh people can afford to burn this stuff.... Of course, you have guessed that (being as I'm not posh) this sad situation came about through incompetence with a tape measure on my part, resulting in a number of things:

1. I was in a strop for most of the day, wanting only to sit and carve the word "IDIOT" across my forehead with a rusty Stanley knife.2. We got a couple of bits of expensive firewood, as I've already mentioned.

3. I have to contact Hugh who sourced the wood for me and admit what I did, because I now need another piece.

4. I have to find a use for the long bit of leftover scrap oak from which I cut the short piece in the photo, as it is too good to burn.

When we bought this house in 2002, we spent all our budget on space. The house was perfectly habitable, but we knew there was lots of work to do. Insulation, modernization, restoration, and lots of other "ations." We might have thought twice if we'd known just what we were taking on....